About Me

I am a lawyer in Melfort, Saskatchewan, Canada who enjoys reading, especially mysteries. Since 2000 I have been writing personal book reviews. This blog includes my reviews, information on and interviews with authors and descriptions of mystery bookstores I have visited. I strive to review all Saskatchewan mysteries. Other Canadian mysteries are listed under the Rest of Canada. As a lawyer I am always interested in legal mysteries. I have a separate page for legal mysteries. Occasionally my reviews of legal mysteries comment on the legal reality of the mystery. You can follow the progression of my favourite authors with up to 15 reviews. Each year I select my favourites in "Bill's Best of ----". As well as current reviews I am posting reviews from 2000 to 2011. Below my most recent couple of posts are the posts of Saskatchewan mysteries I have reviewed alphabetically by author. If you only want a sentence or two description of the book and my recommendation when deciding whether to read the book look at the bold portion of the review. If you would like to email me the link to my email is on the profile page.

Tuesday, June 28, 2016

Art
Oveson, in A Killing in Zion by
Andrew Hunt, is appointed to head the newly created Anti-Polygamy Squad of the
Salt Lake City Police. It is 1934 and the Mayor has decided that it is time to
enforce the criminal laws against polygamy and unlawful cohabitation.

The Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had disavowed polygamy late in the 19th
Century and the practice had been illegal for several decades by the Depression
of the 1930’s.

I was
unable to determine if there was really an Anti-Polygamy Squad in Salt Lake
City during the Depression but I did find online Polygamy in Utah and the Surrounding Area Since the Manifesto of 1890.
It is the master’s thesis of Jerold A. Hilton written in 1965 when he was a
student at Brigham Young University.

The
Manifesto set out that polygamy was not a part of the Church of Latter-day
Saints. Here are some excerpts from the Manifesto:

I, therefore,
as President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, do hereby, in
the most solemn manner, declare that these charges are false. We are not
teaching polygamy or plural marriage, nor permitting any person to enter into
its practice, and I deny that either forty or any other number of plural
marriages have during that period been solemnized in our Temples or in any
other place in the Territory.

****

Inasmuch as
laws have been enacted by Congress forbidding plural marriages, which laws have
been pronounced constitutional by the court of last resort, I hereby declare my
intention to submit to those laws, to use my influence with the members of the
Church over which I preside to have them do likewise.

There is
nothing in my teachings to the Church or in those of my associates, during the
time specified, which can be reasonably construed to inculcate or encourage
polygamy; and when any Elder of the Church has used language which appeared to
convey such teaching, he has been promptly reproved. And I now publicly declare
that my advice to the Latter-day Saints is to refrain from contracting any
marriage forbidden by the law of the land.

Wilford
Woodruff

A significant
number of Mormons rejected the decision of the Church and continued to have
plural marriages.

A Killing in Zion includes as part of the plot issues
that are currently featured in the debate on plural marriages.

Teenage
girls as young as 13 years of age were and are being married to men often
decades older.

With the
number of wives being taken by men, especially older men, there are more boys
growing up than there are women available for marriage. Senior members of
fundamentalist Mormon groups banished teenage boys from the community leaving
them to fend for themselves. Those leaders assert the shortage of marriageable women in the groups is not the reason for banishment.

While these
actions with regard to teenagers are objectionable, even abhorrent, to many
there were no major legal efforts against polygamists from 1890 through the
1930’s.

Hilton’s
thesis provides the annual statistics from 1896 through 1962 on Utah
prosecutions for polygamy (which includes bigamy) and illegal cohabitation.

For the
66 years of the stats there were a total of:

1.) 63 people charged and 38
convicted of polygamy

offences; and,

2.) 35 people charged and 27 convicted of unlawful
cohabitation (of the total 19 charges and 16 convictions occurred in 1943 –
1944).

During
1933 – 1934 which includes the months when A
Killing in Zion takes place there were but 2 charges and 2 convictions for
polygamy offences in the whole state of Utah. There were no charges of unlawful
cohabitation.

There
were thousands of polygamists in Utah during the Depression. In the 1950’s it
is estimated that there were 2,000 to 20,000 polygamists. While they maintained
a low profile in the 1930’s there was no legal offensive to eradicate polygamy

After
examining the above stats it is no surprise that no charges were laid against
anyone in A Killing in Zion. There was
general disapproval of plural marriages but no public outcry for prosecution.

Sunday, June 26, 2016

(26. – 868.)A
Killing in Zion by Andrew Hunt – In the broiling summer of 1934 Detective
Lieutenant Art Oveson is chosen to head the new Anti-Polygamy Squad of the Salt
Lake City Police. Mayor Cummings has decided to take a stand against the barely
private polygamists in his city.

It will not be an
easy investigation. While a breakaway sect, the Fundamentalist Church of
Saints, espouses polygamy they are careful to publicly maintain only one wife.
Secretly the leaders are sealed to numerous other women.

Oveson, a devout
Mormon, supports the position of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints which disavowed polygamy in 1890 as one of the conditions of statehood
for Utah.

Along with “most
modern Mormons” Oveson scorns the polygamists:

Reasons for this powerful dislike were numerous. The
simplest explanation, the pat one, was that polygs made a mockery out of
marriage and family. Yet in my more reflective moments, I was willing to
concede that my hatred for the men in my slide show was rooted in my inability
to come to terms with the lives of my ancestors. Not so long ago, my
great-grandparents on both sides engaged in plural marriage, practicing the
same custom as the men I now detested.

The book caught me
by surprise. I did not understand before reading the book that the current
issues with plural marriages were already present in 1934.

The leader of the
Fundamentalist Church in A Killing in
Zion is LeGrand Johnston, “Uncle Grand” to his followers. Considered a
prophet by the members of his Church he follows a daily routine visiting women
who deny being his wives and tending to Church business. It is a good life at
79.

Oveson is spending
his days and evenings following Uncle Grand hoping to see evidence that would
support charges against the aging prophet.

One night after
Uncle Grand has met with his apostles he returns to the Church containing his
office. He is accompanied by his driver / bodyguard.

Oveson and another
member of the squad, his friend, Roscoe Lund, are startled when they hear shots
fired in the Church. They rush inside to find Uncle Grand and his bodyguard
dead. They have been shot.

While searching
the building the police find a terrified young teenage girl in a closet. She
will not speak to them. Oveson, unsure of her role in the evening but unwilling
to have her taken to the Utah State Industrial School, takes her home. He fails
to notice she is wearing a silver wedding ring.

Oveson’s wife,
Clara, pregnant with their third child, is unhappy that he has not consulted in
her advance. When she finds out the alternative is the grim state reformatory
she readily agrees the teenager can stay with them. No matter how hard they try
the Oveson’s cannot get her to say or write anything.

With apostles and
church members refusing to provide statements the investigation is barely
progressing. Oveson is able to learn there are divisions with the
Fundamentalist Church.

An ill-fated
decision is made to arrest the 11 living apostles of the Fundamentalist Church
and question them aggressively with the expectation they can get one or more to
crack and provide the information needed to solve the murders.

The interrogations
do not go well. In addition to their innate unwillingness to answer the police
their lawyer, Granville Sondrup, counsels them to be silent.

The unjustified
arrests produce a public outcry that predictably leads to political pressure
from City Hall to blame allegedly headstrong police officers for the fiasco.

Oveson is an
honourable man. There are not many in current crime fiction. He neither swears
nor drinks alcohol nor consumes coffee nor abuses drugs. He is true to his
Mormon faith and loves his family and greatly enjoys ice cream with his wife as
a treat. He goes to work secure in the knowledge he has a happy family who will
be glad to see him in the evening. I admire him.

His best friend on
the police force Roscoe is irreligious, a hard drinker, swears constantly, has
no family, engages in brief liasons and is deeply depressed. Oveson, seeing a
loyal man who can be a good police officer, does not condemn Roscoe and works
hard to keep the self-destructive Roscoe on the force.

As they work to
solve the crime there is not a lot of mystery. What drew me along were the
characters and learning about Mormon life and history. I did not realize how
little I knew about Mormons until I read A
Killing in Zion.

Hunt is convincing
in his portrayal of life and murder in Salt Lake City of 1934. I would like to
read more of Art Oveson.

A Killing in Zion is the 4th book I have read from the
shortlist for the 2016 Arthur Ellis Award for Best Canadian Crime Fiction
Novel. (June 22, 2016)

Friday, June 24, 2016

In my last post I discussed the number of Canadian fictional sleuths who are a part of cross-border mysteries. I wondered if publishers were part of the reason. I wrote to Saskatchewan author, Anthony Bidulka, and he responded. Our exchange follows:

****

Anthony

I am in the process of reading and reviewing the shortlist for the 2016 Arthur Ellis Award for Best Crime Novel.

After reading The Storm Murders and Hungry Ghosts I was struck that both involved cross-border mysteries.

That led me to reflect on the number of Canadian authors who have cross-border stories.

Both your Russell Quant and Adam Saint series see the heroes in each book partly in Saskatchewan and partly in other parts of the world.

Other authors such as Ian Hamilton (the Ava Lee books) and Howard Shrier (Jonah Geller) also set their books in both Canada and other places.

You have previously indicated to me it is more difficult to have a published series set in a location such as Saskatchewan.

I would appreciate any comments, personally or generally, on whether the use of cross-border stories are simply inspiration by Canadian writers or whether they are "encouraged" by publishers to have settings in and out of Canada in their books.

I am looking forward to the publication of your new book.

Best.

****

Bill,

Although I have certainly had numerous colleagues tell me of being heavily encouraged to change their settings (specifically from Canada to the U.S.) to appeal to a broader market, I can only publicly comment on my own experience. With both the Quant and Saint books, the multiple settings simply reflect my personal choice and desire to join together my love of writing with my love for both Saskatchewan and travel.Writing about Saskatchewan is both a challenge and an opportunity. The challenge is in attracting readers unfamiliar with Saskatchewan and even Canada in general. Readers like to read about the familiar and characters and places they can relate to.People love to see themselves in the books they read. My view and hope has always been that such challenges may be overcome through aggressive marketing and simply writing a good story.Paradoxically, the opportunity comes from the same source: writing about a place so few people know about. Many readers love to read about the unknown, to learn, to experience something new through reading. In a way, my Saskatchewan settings are what set my two series apart, which can be a very good thing if you take advantage of it. My new book, Set Free, will not have a Saskatchewan setting, with most of the action taking place in Boston and Morocco. This will be my first published work without an obvious Saskatchewan tie. This choice was, again, my own. At this point in my career, fifteen plus years in, I am seeking creative challenge and change, and this is one of them. For Set Free, a stand-alone, the settings I chose 'felt right' for the story I wanted to tell. I've still incorporated some of my travel experiences, having travelled to Morocco, but I'm investigating writing main characters who do not have the prairie background which I am so familiar with.

That being said, I never say never, and may be back to writing a Saskatchewan set story next time around.

Tuesday, June 21, 2016

In
reading The Storm Murders by John
Farrow and Hungry Ghosts by Peggy
Blair back to back I was struck that each involved two settings – one in Canada
and one outside Canada. The use of cross border locales started me thinking
about the number of Canadian mysteries that are set in Canada and another
country.

One of my
favourite authors is Anthony Bidulka. Both of his series have cross border
settings.

In each
of the Russell Quant series we see Russell spending time in Saskatchewan and in
some other distant, usually exotic, spot somewhere in the world. In the opening
book, Amuse Bouche, Russell is off to
France to search for a missing fiancée who failed to show up for a gay wedding in
Saskatoon. In Tapas on the Ramblas he
is gone to the Mediterranean for a cruise. In Sundowner Ubuntu the destination is South Africa.

In Silence Invites the Dead by Scott
Gregory Miller the book opens in Rwanda during the genocide of the 1990’s and
continues in rural Saskatchewan.

A quartet
of successful crime fiction series by Canadian authors have adopted the cross
border theme for settings.

Ian
Hamilton has created a wonderful sleuth in Ava Lee. She is an accountant who is
skilled in Chinese martial arts. While based in Canada her work with “Uncle”
takes her to Chinese communities around the world. The variation Hamilton has
on the cross border theme is that Ava will travel to multiple countries in the
same book. In the Disciple of Las Vegas
she goes from Toronto to Hong Kong to Manila to Vancouver to Victoria to Las
Vegas to London to Toronto. It can be a challenge for a reader to keep up with
her journeys.

Howard
Shrier’s tough guy sleuth, Jonah Geller, has travelled between Canada and the
U.S. in most books of the series. The titles of Buffalo Jump and High Chicago
tell you the American cities of each book.

David
Rotenberg’s trilogy, The Junction
Chronicles, saw synaesthete, Decker Roberts, going back and forth between
Toronto and the United States. In The
Placebo Effect the action moves between Toronto and Cincinnati.

Former
sports reporter, Alison Gordon, created a sleuth, Kate Henry, who is also a
sports reporter. Henry is the beat writer for a Toronto newspaper. She covers
the Toronto big league baseball team and is constantly traveling between
Toronto and America. Henry, in Night Game,
spends time in Toronto and then in Florida at spring training.

Returning
to the two books that inspired this post The
Storm Murders move between Quebec and New Orleans while in Hungry Ghosts it is Cuba and Northern
Ontario.

When I
was reviewing The Placebo Effect I
thought it unusual to involve multiple countries in crime fiction. When I
actually looked at my reading I realized there are, as set out in this post, a
significant number of Canadian mystery series that have settings in and out of
Canada in the same book.

While
certainly a minority of Canadian crime fiction series the cross border settings
led me to wonder if Canadian authors face “encouragement” from publishers to
include other parts of the world as locales for the cases of their Canadian
sleuths.

I had
recalled Anthony Bidulka remarking it is harder to get published a series set
in Saskatchewan. I asked Anthony about the cross-border settings taking place
in Canadian crime fiction. Our email exchange will be my next post.

Saturday, June 18, 2016

Hungry Ghosts by Peggy Blair – Ghosts of
murder victims are appearing to Inspector Ricardo Ramirez in Havana. They never
speak but do gesture to him. He has been haunted for some time:

For years, Ramirez had been shadowed by ghosts. His Yoruba slave grandmother had prophesized that messengers would come, sent by Elegua, the god of the crossroads. They began to appear shortly after Ramirez's promotion.

The title
comes through a conversation Ramirez has with Dr. Yeung from China:

"I am a Taoist, Inspector Ramirez," said Yeung. "We believe

animals have souls. And we believe there are three kinds of

ghosts. There are orphan ghosts, who have no children to

honour them properly. There are the ghosts of those who die

violently, who sometimes come back for revenge. And then

there are the hungry ghosts, the ones who can't feed themselves

enough no matter how hard they try. Most murdered women are

hungry ghosts.

As the
book opens he is dealing with the murder of a clearly well-to-do man, probably
a foreigner. No identification had been found.

Before he
can investigate he is called to the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes where a bomb
threat has forced the evacuation of the building. While emptied of people
someone has defaced with red paint five portraits from a collection of Italian masterpieces
on exhibition.

A short
time later the ghost of a young woman appears to Ramirez. A prostitute, she has
been manually strangled and then had a stocking tied around her neck. Ramirez
is reminded of an earlier murder of a prostitute.

At the
same time, mid-winter, in northern Ontario (the real life location is hard to understand)
the body of a woman has been found on the Manomin Bay First Nation. A barricade
built by the members of the band to protest the re-opening of a mill near the
reserve is keeping non-residents, including police, from the reserve.

Charlie
Pike of the Ottawa Police is a member of the Manomin Bay band. He is dispatched
north to investigate the crime because the protesters will let him through the
blockade.

For some
time the Highway Strangler Task Force has been identifying connections between
murdered women and want to know if this victim fits the profile. The deceased
is different from the women listed by the Task Force. They were all indigenous.
She is white.

The
Canadian section of the mystery draws upon a national search for missing and
dead indigenous women. A Royal Commission of Inquiry is about to delve into the
issue.

In the
autopsy the cause of death is manual strangulation.

In Cuba
Ramirez copes with the frustrations of life in a desperately poor country which
is regressing as a nation. Shortages abound. Corruption is increasing. The
socialist dream is descending into nightmare.

Back in
Canada, as he investigates on the reserve, Pike is drawn back to his youth and
the brutal residential school he endured.

On his
reserve a strong connection remains to Ojibway traditions.

I
appreciated how Blair deals with the details of life for Ramirez and Pike
outside their police work. I was drawn into their lives.

As I read
I wondered how Blair was going to connect murders in big city Havana with
murders in rural Canada. It is a challenge to draw to together multiple
investigations, there are three in this book, but Blair credibly puts them
together.

The book
highlights the ongoing consequences across Canada of the damage done to Indians
who attended residential schools.

I did find
the book preached at times. All of the indigenous Canadians in the book are
victims. All of their problems are traced to residential schools and government
actions with regard to their lands. I have dealt through my legal career with
the issues of indigenous Canadians. Not all of them are victims. For those with
problems, the causes are not as simplistic as the book.

While I
tired at times on how indigenous lifestyles were portrayed it is a very good
book.

Ramirez
and Pike are wonderful characters. I am not found of spirits in mysteries but
the ghosts about Ramirez do not detract from the investigation and do not solve
the mystery. Pike has no ghosts but he has unresolved issues from his youth
when he narrowly escaped from a life that had him on a path to prison.

While
titled an Inspector Ramirez mystery it is about Ramirez and Pike. I hope they
are both in Blair’s next mystery. I would like to spend more time with them.

Hungry Ghosts is one of the five books that
formed the shortlist for the 2016 Arthur Ellis Award for Best Canadian Crime
Novel.

The revised criteria do not allow repeat winners so John Grisham cannot win a third time and Michael Connelly, Paul Goldstein and Deborah Johnson cannot win a second award.

Of the trio I have read only Kermit Roosevelt. I read In the Shadow of the Law back in 2007 and included my review in a post I did for the letter "K" as part of Crime Fiction Alphabet meme for 2013 hosted by Kerrie Smith at her Mysteries in Paradise blog.I thought it an excellent book that managed to combine "securitization of assets" and a death penalty case. I am looking forward to Allegiance which I can see by the cover will involve Japanese Americans during World War II.The ABA Journal provided the following information on the selection committee:

The panelists who will vote to select a winner from the group of finalists this year are Philip Beidler, author and professor at the University of Alabama; Helen Ellis, author of American Housewife; Homer Hickam, author of Rocket Boys; Rheta Grimsley Johnson, author, journalist and syndicated columnist; and Angela Johnson, author of Wind Flyers and Heaven.

Information about the finalists can be found on the ABA Journal website at http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/2016_harper_lee_prize_finalistsOnce again readers of the Journal can help pick the winner by voting online at the Journal. The public, through the book attracting the most votes, effectively becomes a 6th voter whose vote is recognized as an equal vote to each of the selection committee members.

I am getting ready to read the books on the shortlist so I can post reviews and my selection for the Prize prior to the Award being presented in September.

The Prize will be presented on September 22 in Washington as a part of the Library of Congress National Book Festival.

Sunday, June 12, 2016

(24. – 866.) The Storm Murders by John Farrow (psudeonym of Trevor Ferguson) –
Two members of the Surete du Quebec are called to a farm house near Montreal
just after a fierce snowstorm. As they enter the house they can see from the
undisturbed drifts no one has entered or left the house that day.

Inside the house they find the
husband dead downstairs. Searching upstairs they find the wife badly wounded.
When no gun is near her they know it was no murder / suicide and realize no one
has left the house but there is no one else in any of the rooms. They call for
assistance.

As one officer looks out of the
bedroom door he is shot and when his partner reflexively looks out he is shot.

When backup arrives they find four
bodies and no sign of any footprints leading away.

What has happened to the killer?

FBI special agent, Rand Dreher,
calls upon retired Sergeant-Detective, Emile Cinq-Mars, who is living near the
murder scene. He wants Cinq-Mars to serve as a consultant to the FBI. The
murders in Canada follow a pattern of some American killings.

Dreher hopes Cinq-Mars, a legend in
Quebec, can help with the investigation.

Cinq-Mars accompanies a former
colleague, Sergeant-Detective Bill Mathers, and Dreher to the crime scene.
Through his powers of observation, unlike the usually forensic dependent
current detective, he works out what has happened in the farm house. It is
simple but clever.

As common for me in crime fiction I had not figured out how
the murders were committed though I had full access to all the information
needed.

Cinq-Mars hesitates to do more. His
much younger wife, Sandra, is unhappy and their marriage is in trouble. He decides
on a unique form of marital therapy. He will share with her everything he
learns in the investigation. He is no longer a police officer. He has no oath
of secrecy.

Sandra’s participation added
intrigue to the book. She does not become an investigator. She does think about
the evidence and adds her suggestions. What happens to Sandra provides a vivid
illustration of the risks of murder investigations by spouses.

The investigation takes them to New
Orleans where they meet a large flamboyant New Orleans detective, Marcus Dupree.

A dark tale gradually unfolds.

While I wish I were a better
armchair deducer there was an important issue with regard to the murdered
couples in Quebec and New Orleans that was immediately obvious to me but not to
the investigators. It was recognized far later than plausible.

It is inevitable that a book
featuring a brilliant middle aged Quebec detective will invite
comparisons with Armand Gamache of the mysteries written by Louise Penny.
Cinq-Mars and Gamache are certainly not identical but they could have been
cousins. I appreciate older sleuths whose analytical skills are more important
than their physical prowess.

Aspects of the Hollywood style
conclusion challenged credibility but I thought it a very good book. The
inventiveness of the murders drew me into the book. Most modern murders lack
believable ingenuity.

The
Storm Murders is the 3rd book I have
read from the shortlist for the 2016 Arthur Ellis Award for Best Crime Fiction Novel.

Thursday, June 9, 2016

It has been awhile since I have
reacted so differently to a pair of books in a mystery series. I thought 1222 was a good book but The Lion’s Mouth a great book.

If I had not been provided a copy of
The Lion’s Mouth by the publisher I
doubt I would have purchased another Anne Holt mystery.

I had plodded through 1222 wondering all the way why the book
had gained such praise and an Edgar Award nomination.

I loved The Lion’s Mouth and could barely wait to see how the story
unfolded.

Because of the quirks in the
publication of translated books The
Lion’s Mouth was written before 1222
but is only now appearing in English in North America.

The Lion’s Mouth should have been the strong contender for book awards. I did not check the date before starting to read the book and was wondering for a time why there was a book set before Hanne was shot that was written after she was shot and then I realized it was another translation out of order. I do not think I will ever get used to books in a series being translated in some apparently random sequence.

I liked Hanne better in The Lion’s Mouth. Her sour disposition in 1222
overshadowed her deducting talents. In The
Lion’s Mouth she is an outgoing vital woman enjoying life. I can understand
the change in her personality because of the shooting that has left her
crippled. However, she is a dispiriting character in 1222.

Hanne has a better supporting
character in The Lion’s Mouth in
BillyT. The huge Oslo detective is emotionally candid and a powerful character.
In 1222 she is aided by Geir Rugholmen.
While a good man he does not fill out the pages like Billy T.

I found the victim in The Lion’s Mouth made for a more
compelling story. It is hard to come up with a victim who commands your
attention more than the Prime Minister.

Each involves questions of who could
have committed murder in a closed setting. The resort hotel of 1222 and the Prime Minister's office of The Lion's Mouth.

What is unusual is that in each book Hanne is not really acting as a police officer. In 1222 she attempts to shun the investigation preferring to sit in her wheelchair waiting for the storm to end. She grudgingly helps in the investigation. In The Lion's Mouth she is not on duty having gone for an extended leave to California. She returns to Norway to help Billy T. but has a significantly secondary role.

They had profoundly different endings. Hanne in 1222 , intentionally or not gives a strong Nero Wolfe impression, having the suspects assembled for her and then revealing the killer. The impression is heightened as Wolfe always conducts those meetings seated behind his massive desk.In The Lion's Mouth the ending unfolds in a series of climaxes as investigators put together what happened. It is far more emotional and realistic.I remain unsure if I want to read more of the "new" Hanne when I liked the "old" Hanne better.

Sunday, June 5, 2016

(22. – 864.) The Lion’s Mouth by Anne Holt and Berit Reiss-Andersen translated
by Anne Bruce (1997) – It is a quiet Friday evening in Oslo in early April of 1997. Wenche
Andersen has strict instructions not to interrupt Birgitte Volter, the Prime
Minister of Norway. Unable to leave before the Prime Minister she frets for over
an hour after Supreme Court Justice Benjamin Grinde has left the Prime
Minister’s office. More anxious to start her weekend than fearful of Prime
Ministerial wrath she enters the office and finds the Prime Minister dead from
a gunshot to the head.

The loud, profane, huge Billy T. of
the Oslo Police is the lead investigator. He is not a patient man yet his
reaction to being with the murder victim is striking:

As always when he found himself in close proximity to a
corpse, it struck Billy T. that nothing was as naked as death. Seeing this
woman who had ruled the country until three hours ago, this woman whom he had
never seen in the flesh but had encountered every single day on TV, in the
newspapers, and on the radio; seeing Birgitte Volter, the human being behind
the public persona, lying dead on her own desk, this was worse, more
embarrassing, and made him feel more self-conscious than seeing her without any
clothes. Billy T. turned away and walked down the stairs.

The police face challenge after
challenge in their investigation.

How did the killer gain access when Andersen
and security guards say no one entered the office after Supreme Court Justice
Benjamin Grinde?

In addition to being a judge Grinde
is also the chair of a committee investigating the disproportionate number of
sudden deaths of Norwegian babies in 1965.

In a somewhat surreal scene the
police arrest Grinde as he is about to make liver pate in his home. After a
quick conversation the police realize they have no evidence beyond Grinde being
the last person to see Volter alive and he is swiftly released.

Who would want to kill the Prime
Minister? As they start their investigation the police do not know whether she
was killed for a political reason or because of a personal vendetta.

There are so many potential killers
to be investigated. As well as Grinde they must look at her family, her
friends, her staff, those working in her office building, her political
colleagues and extremist right wing opponents of her Labor Party.

Classic Norwegian reserve hampers
the police. No one is forthcoming about anything. Relationships have to be
pried out.

As the investigation proceeds the
secrets of Volter’s life are gradually revealed.

Who will gain politically from her
death is not clear. The new leader of the Labour Party and Prime Minister is
not an enthusiastic successor.

When the gun turns out to be an
antique Russian revolver there are yet more complications.

In their investigation the police
are extremely conscious of the bungled Olof Palme murder investigation by the
Swedish police 11 years earlier. There has never been a conclusive resolution
of that murder. As discussed in a post after my review of Killing Pilgrim there have been a series of theories on who killed
Palme. I continue to think that it was Christer Pettersson, who was charged by the
police and convicted before being freed on a successful appeal of his
conviction.

Because of the potential extremist
threat the Norwegian Security Services are involved. Billy T. expects they will
be parsimonious with information they collect during their investigation.

One of the Security Services staff
has a T-shirt with a perfect statement for describing an intelligence agent:

Bold
black letters across the entire front of the gray T-

shirt declared “I’ve got
your file.”

The Norwegian media have a
significant role in the story. Little Letvik is a skilled and unscrupulous
investigative reporter.

While described as a Hanne
Wilhelmsen mystery it is really Billy T.’s book. Hanne does not make an
appearance until almost 100 pages are gone. She is on leave in California with
her partner, Cecilie. Hanne returns to Norway to aid Billy T. but stays in the
background because she is not on duty.

A good book later became great when
I was blind sided by a credible development concerning the gun.

The ending was as powerful and
convincing a conclusion as I have read in a long time. For those who cannot
forgive the past is never gone. I was left sad but very glad I had read the
book.

Friday, June 3, 2016

1222 by Anne Holt – Deep within my
TBR boxes was 1222. I was inspired to
read the book when Scribner provided me with a copy of The Lion’s Mouth, the newest book in the series. I decided to read
the two books featuring Hanne Wilhelmsen back to back.

In 1222, written in 2011, Hanne is on a
train heading to the west coast of Norway for a medical appointment in Bergen
when the train derails at the tunnel on the edge of the mountain town of Finse.

Tossed
about in the wreck the wheelchair bound Hanne ends up with a baby on her lap
and a ski pole stuck through her thigh. With no feeling below her waist Hanne
was unaware of the injury.

Rescuers
work efficiently to transport the guests to an almost empty resort hotel as a
fierce winter storm, we would call it a blizzard in Saskatchewan, envelops the
town.

With
heavy snow and strong wind forecast for several days the travelers will be
forced to sit out the storm at the hotel.

It is the
first time I have read a form of country home mystery caused by a blizzard. It
is a setting I can clearly identify with after 63 Saskatchewan winters. Holt
writes with the conviction and experience of a person who has experienced a
ferocious storm that makes even venturing outside dangerous.

Everyone
who has grown up or lived in Saskatchewan can appreciate the fury of a
blizzard. I have experienced days when you could barely see buildings across
the road and, when it was dark, could see nothing.

Survival
is dependent on shelter. You cannot stay alive in the open during a blizzard.
The cruel wind will work its way through any clothing and any exposed flesh
will start freezing in minutes.

Buildings
are rarely threatened by blizzards. As long as you are inside with heat and
electricity a blizzard can be an adventure.

For the
train passengers the excitement of surviving the wreck and being storm stayed
swiftly abates.

When
Church minister, Cato Hammer, tries to encourage the passengers to be thankful
he is basically shouted down.

Hanne is
unpleasant. She refuses a room insisting she stay in her chair. She is abrupt
with those wanting to talk to her. She is rude to anyone wanting to help her.
Her prickly personality soon leaves her alone in the busy hotel.

Dr.
Marcus Streng, who has treated her injury and confidently stated she will
recover, ignores her barbs and visits with her. Since he is a dwarf Hanne can
hardly think he is condescending towards her because of her disability.

When Cato
is found murdered Hanne, a homicide officer in the Oslo police until she
suffered the spinal injury that left her a paraplegic, hotel and local leaders
look to her. She is uninterested in an investigation but cannot escape the
compulsion of a lifetime to carefully observe those around her.

She is
aided by Geir Rugholmen, a lawyer from Bergen who has come to his apartment to
work on his kitchen for a week and aided in the rescue. He is clearly a good
man but I did not find he caught my attention.

With the
investigation almost a non-investigation and the sleuth an uninterested
investigator the plot was slow moving until the last 100 pages.

There
were few characters I really liked in the book. It was actually a long way into
the book before I started to like Hanne. She had been so determined to be
aloof. Gradually Holt won me over as Hanne slowly involves herself in the
investigation. It should not matter that Hanne was not really likeable but her
attitude affected me.

I was
pleasantly surprised there was a conference at the end of the book of the type
Nero Wolfe specialized in to uncover the murderer. Hanne is a worthy successor
to Wolfe in publicly analyzing the evidence and identifying the killer.

Were The Lion’s Mouth not on the table beside
me I am not sure if I would read another in the series. 1222 was an alright book but no more for me.